abstract Case

being Case-marked is assumed to be a universal property of overt nominal expressions. Whenever there is no visible marking, we assume there to be invisible Case on the given nominal expression.

aspect

a semantic property of verbs expressing how a certain event is viewed. See lexical aspect and grammatical aspect.

aspectual morpheme

the morphemes -ing and -en responsible for the progressive and perfective aspectual meanings, respectively.

clause

a structure containing a (visible or invisible) subject and a predicate.

distribution

the set of positions that the grammar determines to be possible for a given category. Words that distribute in the same way will belong to the same categories, words that distribute differently will belong to different categories.

dummy auxiliary

a certain form of the auxiliary do, its main function is to support the tense morpheme when it cannot appear on the main verb

finite clause

a clause containing a finite verb.

light verb

a verb occupying the head of a vP used in combination with another element, typically a noun or verb, where the light verb’s contribution to the meaning of the whole construction is less than that of a fully thematic main verb, e.g. to take a shower=to shower. Certain verbs expressing aspectual (be, have) or modal (let) meaning also belong here. According to the proposals in the present book the following constituents can appear within the vP in a visible or abstract form (see also vP-shells):

– agentive arguments in the specifier positions

– experiencer arguments in the specifier position

– goal arguments in the double-object construction as specifiers

– the passive -en morpheme in the head of vP

– the aspectual morphemes -en and -ing in the head of vP

– the tense morpheme in the head of vP

morpheme

the smallest meaningful unit. Words can be made up of one or more morphemes. See also bound morpheme, free morpheme.

perfect aspect

an action is viewed as being completed, e.g. in I have written my homework.

subject position

the position where subjects appear in the tree. The base position of the subject depends on its theta role. Agents and experiencers are generated in Spec,vP. Theme subjects appear in Spec,VP. These positions are not Case positions, so the subjects move to the canonical subject position, Spec, IP.

tense

a syntactic category with the help of which we can locate an event or situation in time. In syntactic representation information about tense can be found within the vP appearing directly under the IP in the form of -s, -ed or the zero tense morpheme.

theme

one of the thematic roles where the argument is not affected by the action described by the verb e.g. in Peter saw John nothing directly happens to John as a result of being seen. In terms of the UTAH the theme theta-role is assigned to the specifier position of the VP.

there-construction: see existential there-construction.

theta role

the semantic role of the participants as required by the predicate. E.g. verbs define what kind of semantic relationship is to be established between the verb itself and the arguments of the verb, and arguments are selected accordingly. The verb kick calls for an agent subject, so its subject position cannot be occupied by e.g. my CD-player.

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Basic English Syntax with Exercises

5.3.2 The nature of the aspectual morpheme

Taking the similarity of the passive morpheme and aspectual morphemes one step further, we might argue that aspectual morphemes are another kind of light verb, which is not surprising as light verbs can affect the aspectual interpretation of the structure they are included in. The Urdu example given above and repeated here for convenience, uses a light verb lene ‘take’ to indicate the perfective status of the event described:

(165)nadyane saddafko xat lik lene diya
Nadya-erg. Saddaf-dat. letter write take-inf. give-perf.Masc.s
‘Nadya let Saddaf write a letter (completely)’

The analysis of the aspectual structure of English might therefore be as follows:

(166) a
 
b

 
c

In all these cases, the main verb will move to support the lowest aspectual morpheme at which point it cannot move any further as its morphological structure is complete and cannot be added to. As the aspectual morphemes do not play a role in assigning Θ-roles, they also do not have the ability to assign Case as some light verbs do. Thus, the theme will have to move to subject position to get Case.

Finally, presuming the clause to be finite, some element will have to bear the tense morpheme. As the verb cannot do this, the relevant dummy auxiliary will be inserted into the tense position: have in the presence of en and be in the presence of ing. In (167c) there is the extra complication that there are two aspectual morphemes as well as the tense morpheme. In this case the verb moves to the lowest aspectual morpheme, ing, and an inserted auxiliary will bear the other morphemes, be for the perfective and have for the tense:

(167) a = the door1 had [closed2 [t1 t2]]
b = the door1 was [closing2 [t1 t2]]
c = the door1 had [been [closing2 [t1 t2]]

With these assumptions then we can successfully account for the distribution of the aspectual elements in the English clause. We will provide more detail of the upper part of the clause structure including the tense and clausal subject position in the next chapter.

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